I was just thinking about the same thing. We all need to give ourselves credit. We are doing something about it and it is HARD. If it wasn't everyone would lose weight when they need to. With so many people here doing the same thing and loosing awsome amounts of weight, is is easy to looses sight of the fact they we are all the couagous few tht dare to go out and do the hard work that needs to be done to win at this!

I feel kind of bad for the person in that picture -- imagine clicking into a web article on the obesity epidemic and seeing one of yourself from 2 years ago shoving french fries into your face with two cokes waiting in the wings. Omg, I'd die of shame.

These processed "easy" foods are killing americans!..I have a friend who came from Mexico and the first 2 months she was here.. she gained 30 pounds...30!...Its sad when everyone thinks a sandwhich made of (insert cheapo processed white bread name here..) and peanut butter and jelly is healthy for their child.. Granted my son eats them but on whole grain bread.. all natural no sugar added peanut butter.. and preserves no sugar added and sweetened with natural flavors.. he doesnt even know the difference.. We need to pull away from these foods that are making us obses and get them off the market! I am teaching my son.. who is only 4 to know what is right to eat.. because he is gonna have to fight.. both sides of his family are overweight .... SO sad

The thing with one in every four Americans being obese- *I* think has to be looked at the same way as- activity vs food-- I believe there was a study that said something about the French eating more fat per capita than any other country- yet it's caloric intake and exercise... I just think it has more to do with us putting our bodies in auto pilot and expecting it to survive our work schedules that have us eating out four times a week and sleeping four hours a night lol

Kudos to everyone who has made an effort- It strikes me odd that we are so easily supportive of everyone else, but when we ourselves slip up we are sooooo down on ourselves A lesson in there somewhere lol I keep trying to remember that saying that you wouldn't treat your friends the way you treat yourself...

When you stop and think about it, the implications are staggering! If someone is a healthy weight, they're now a distinct the minority in this country. "Normal" now is overweight or obese. And it's true -- all any of us has to do is look around a mall, airport, or any place with a lot of people. Almost everyone is -- at a minimum -- overweight. I really have to wonder if our health care system is going to be able to handle the fallout of overweight/obesity being "the new normal".

Kudos to all of us for being here and working hard at weight loss and maintenance every day.

betty - I had read in China that on average they eat more calories per day than we do. Even allowing for the amount of physical activity they engage in, it is still more. The difference is they don't eat a lot of processed stuff. Their diet is mostly composed of rice and veggies. Where you do find overweight people in China is in the major cities where places like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and other American chains exist. When I went, I never saw an overweight person until we went to Beijing and even then it was still rare.